They were teachers and lawyers, military veterans and fired government employees. Children and grandmothers, students and retirees.
Arriving in droves across the country in major cities and small towns, they appeared in costumes, blared music, brandished signs, hoisted American flags and cheered at the honks of passing cars.
The vibe in most places was irreverent but peaceful and family-friendly. The purpose, however, was focused. Each crowd, everywhere, shared the same mantra: No kings.
Collectively, the daylong mass demonstration against the Trump administration on Saturday, held in thousands of locations, condemned a President that the protesters view as acting like a monarch.
Many had attended a similar event in June, but the months since had seen President Donald Trump make a dizzying array of changes in quick succession.
This time, the crowds included a new round of protesters, those who said they were outraged over immigration raids, the deployment of federal troops in cities, government layoffs, steep budget cuts, the chipping away of voting rights, the rollback of vaccine requirements, the reversal on treaties with tribes and the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.
Many were also united in saying the administration needed to show basic humanity.
“We can argue and debate policies and ways that we can solve problems,” said Chris Scharman, a lawyer who attended a rally in Salt Lake City. “But we shouldn’t be debating the value of people.”
In major metropolitan areas, like Washington, D.C., the crowds were huge. A rally in Atlanta that drew thousands at one point covered three city blocks. A protest in San Francisco poured across five. One rally in Chicago stretched over 22.
Officials in New York said that more than 100,000 people demonstrated across all five boroughs of the city. One of the largest turnouts was in Times Square, where the streets were awash in a carnival-like atmosphere with flashy, flippant signs, one that announced “I Pledge Allegiance to No King”. Protesters sported the inflatable frog ensemble that activists in Portland, Oregon, began wearing to poke fun at the White House’s attempt to portray activists as anarchists or domestic terrorists.
“No more Trump!” the crowd chanted as they waved American flags.
Known as No Kings Day, a follow-up to a demonstration in June, the events were scheduled at roughly 2,600 sites across all 50 states. They were organised by national and local groups and well-known progressive coalitions including Indivisible, 50501 and MoveOn.
The rallies came even as Trump's approval ratings at the polls have not changed significantly. Republican leaders denounced the protests, blaming them for prolonging the government shutdown and calling the event the “hate America rally”.
Around the country, strangers met and swapped their long lists of grievances with one another: the government shutdown, the tariffs, Trump’s attacks on higher education, the pressure he has placed on the justice department to prosecute political enemies,, the erosion of women’s rights, and the disbanding of DEI programmes.
In a show of solidarity, protesters around the world held demonstrations outside US embassies, consulates or at town squares, including in Prague, Vienna and
Malmo, Sweden.
New York Times News Service